The E-Rate's First Report Card

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The E-Rate's First Report Card

A controversial federal program provided Internet access to tens of thousands of schools and libraries during its first 18 months. But poor organization and an abundance of red tape has left some schools feeling short-changed.

The so-called e-rate was designed to help schools and libraries move forward in the Information Age by granting deep discounts on telecommunications and Internet access.

The Universal Service Administrative Company is the nonprofit corporation created to distribute the federal monies collected from the telecommunications industry. The "contributions" are tied to telecommunications companies' annual revenues.

USAC allocated US$1.66 billion in grants to 25,785 schools, libraries, and educational institutions during the 18 months that ended 30 June. Of that, 76 percent went to school districts, 7 percent directly to individual schools, 4 percent to libraries, and 14 percent to educational consortia.

The e-rate was established as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It grants schools and libraries 20 to 90 percent discounts on the cost of telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal connections.

The fund has grown to $2.25 billion dollars for the year beginning July 1999.

Although e-rate funds were granted to more than 85 percent of initial applicants, some school administrators said they were unfairly excluded.

"We did not get a dime from e-rate. I don’t know the reason that we were denied, but I know that it’s unfair," said Charlie Knight, superintendent of the Ravenswood School District in East Palo Alto, California.

"I regret it, because we had great plans for it," Knight added. She said her low-income district had been working with Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems to create technology programs that would benefit students.

The district applied as a consortium, along with several smaller districts in California, in the belief it would have a better chance of receiving funding. But the consortium's grant was denied.

E-rate applicants were required to submit a technology plan outlining their goals, needs, and staff plans for the technology, together with a budget, and means for evaluating their progress.

According to Knight and Judy Green, one of the application consultants for Ravenswood, the district's application was modeled after the Los Angeles Unified School District's plan, which did receive funding.

Ravenswood appealed the decision, but was rejected again. The district has filed an appeal with the FCC, and also written to Representative Anna Eshoo (D-California), a strong advocate of e-rate.

"They need to work out some of the bugs," Green said of the application process. The forms were confusing, she said, and calls to USAC for help were not immediately answered or were answered by inexperienced employees.